1. Palin: average isn't good enough

Comment #243281 by bhima on September 5, 2008 at 11:04 am

Thank you Sam, i have been waiting for a response from this community about Palin's insanity. And to the "drill here, drill now" dog: It will take over 10 years to even get the system and equipment in place to even get a drop of oil to the market. Also, that oil is extremely good quality, better than what we actually use and is more what the Japanese use. So, put on yer little economics cap and think, if you are Exxon or BP, do you sell this oil to america for 4 bucks a gallon? or do you sell it to the japanese for 6 bucks a gallon? Your call really, oil is a dying technology and needs to be replaced asap.

More money for the Exxons of the world? Thanks but no thanks. Transnational corps like that care not about anyone's single country. The bush administration is staffed with oil industry people... hell, they even put harmid karzai from Unocal in charge of Afghanistan. Take the blinders off dude, the republican party has been taken over by extreme neo-conservative nutjobs... the party of Lincoln or TR my ass.

2. How to reconcile Richard Dawkins?

Comment #186545 by bhima on May 30, 2008 at 2:59 pm

"The people who want socialism don't expect to be on the bottom rung. "

I find this statement ironic to say the least. Isn't that the point of Socialism? Its sort of the manifestation of Rawls Veil of Ignorance. Your statement works extremely well in a Laisse-Faire capitalistic state where the bottom rung has no social safety net, not socialism.

To be clear, by socialism (in terms of a system that can work in the REAL world), i mean a constitutionally limited socialistic democracy, like the Scandinavian countries utilize.

3. Get out of here, atheists!

Comment #156478 by bhima on April 7, 2008 at 3:53 pm

I don't know why some of you are putting her up to Reverend Wright. You should be putting her statement up with Pat Robertson! Wright said many valid things about the history of America and one thing absurd ("the government caused AIDS", though, in his defense the government DID experiment on Africans and the effects of syphilus. Google the Tuskeegee experiment). I don't know why people keep bringing him up, only answer I have is that most people are just ignorant of the american crimes of imperialism especially within central and south america (which Wright was referring to).

4. Hitchens V. Boteach

Comment #122088 by bhima on February 4, 2008 at 4:09 pm

There might be a logical reason for the Iraq War... Such as securing the world's most important energy source. But there is absolutely no good ethical reason for the war. All the claims against the Baathist regime to go to war were based on zero evidence. Hans Blix called it when he felt like the US were acting like the Salem witch trial lawyers. And more than 1,000,000 people have died as a result of this war. Check the Lancet report. And yes... the US is responsible for all of those lives. No they didn't pull the trigger on each one, but they opened the floodgates to this slaughter.

5. Interview with Richard Dawkins: On Christmas

Comment #100746 by bhima on December 19, 2007 at 9:10 am

"i dont worship sherlock holmes but i enjoy reading about it"...well...THATS THE FKN POINT ISNT IT???!!!!!! "

Quoted for truth! I wish richard would have just said after the interviewer made that statement "that's precisely my point! You can enjoy it without needing to worship it or believe it to be true!"

6. THE FOUR HORSEMEN - Available Now on DVD!

Comment #100155 by bhima on December 18, 2007 at 10:16 am

Its like The View for smart people.

the 4 horsemen should do this once a month! Its a great display of all their viewpoints wrapped neatly in a 2 hour discussion. We want more!

7. An Open Letter to Richard Dawkins

Comment #97031 by bhima on December 11, 2007 at 10:03 am

"Goddammit, it's about natural selection operating on genes, not killing retards. "

LOL

8. Mitt the Mormon

Comment #91623 by bhima on November 28, 2007 at 5:33 pm

USA_Limey-

Then I stand corrected! ;)

In other news:

Huckabee is gaining steam, isn't he one of the evolution denyers??

9. Mitt the Mormon

Comment #91491 by bhima on November 28, 2007 at 12:54 pm

USA_Limey-

Jefferson was as much a libertarian as he was a Mormon. Seriously though, A devout Libertarian would not be cool with a government subsidized school system. But that my friend is exactly what Jefferson made when he founded the University of Virginia... a government sponsored school, that was FREE to anyone who could meet the requirements to get in. He was more proud to be the founder of this school than he was of being president, just read his epitaph. There are countless other examples of his non-Libertarianism that I won't go into here. But you could read the people that inspired him like Locke, Paine and de Tocqueville.

10. Christopher Hitchens at AAI 07

Comment #80881 by bhima on October 23, 2007 at 10:09 am

It's time for Hitchens to have a debate about the war with those who know more about the nuclear programs he so adamantly thinks is in Iran. I'd call on either Chris Hedges or Scott Ritter put put Hitch in his place about his warmongering attitude. I love that he debates seemingly able theists and does extremely well, but I have yet to see him debate an able anti-war thinker (George Galloway doesn't count) and get away with his cartoonish view of the Middle East.

11. A Look at Regent University

Comment #46172 by bhima on May 30, 2007 at 12:48 pm

its been said before, but i gotta add to this:

This was the most frightening mini-documentary i have ever seen. Herein lies the destruction of the US constitution...where a school can be accredited by our system, yet totally want to dismantle that said system with the ABSOLUTE TRUTH WHICH IS GOD'S WORD! I'm just lucky my bride to be is a virgin, otherwise i'd have to stone her on her pop's doorstep.

horrifying.

12. Prayer can improve physical health

Comment #43681 by bhima on May 22, 2007 at 9:29 am

They should have studied 3 groups....Christians that pray to gawd, Buddhists that meditate and don't believe in a personal god, and the control group: people who don't pray or get prayed for.

13. Four arrested in Iraq 'honor killing'

Comment #42842 by bhima on May 20, 2007 at 12:54 am

the name "honor killing" in relation to what it means to these people gives me the heebee jeebee's.

I am suprised people got arrested for it...glad to see some people in Iraq are trying to bring some sort of justice to the chaos.

14. Jerry Falwell's Hit Parade

Comment #42140 by bhima on May 17, 2007 at 5:30 pm

wow, someone actually came on this board to defend him? Nice shade of brown on that shirt good german.

The man peddled ignorance (you can even take his religious pandering out of it) on a level not seen since McCarthy.

15. One side can be wrong

Comment #40759 by bhima on May 14, 2007 at 11:05 pm

Oooh...anyone know any more info on the upcoming debate between Harris and Hedges? That will be a freakin' awesome debate.

16. Sam Harris in conversation with Oliver McTernan

Comment #38931 by bhima on May 9, 2007 at 2:28 pm

" 47. Comment #38927 by kkant on May 9, 2007 at 2:07 pm
I've joined and converted the Harris-McTernan debate to an MP3. It is available here:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=QBQZMBEX
"

uhh...where's the button to download it? Do i need to DL their manager then DL the file or register?

bleh, i found it.

17. Interview with Christopher Hitchens

Comment #38574 by bhima on May 8, 2007 at 4:28 pm

For anyone who actually understands hitchens supporting the war in Iraq, I ask you, under what circumstance or evidence leads you to this belief?

1) the fight the terrorists there theory:
This would be on somewhat sane ground if, in fact, Iraq was some sort of huge incubator for terrorism. It was factually NOT a safe-haven for terrorists (especially those linked to the pseudo-group "al Queda" known as Islamic Jihad), Saddam fundamentally hated all of these theo-fascists like Zawahiri and his funder Bin Laden. So what we have done is rip the foundation of a (certainly not perfect but definitely stable) society and country to shreds, leaving room for extremism to flourish.

2) The "true imminent threat of terror is imperative" theory: This theory usually stems from the idea that we should look at the threat to our lives terrorism can cause us in the long term. Of course, this sort of tunnel vision quickly becomes the chicken little-speak it truly is when put into the context of other forms of death. There are more people that die from getting struck by lightning than those that are killed in a terrorist attack each year in the United States. Is this to say that terrorism is not some sort of a threat? Or that we shouldn't do something to prevent it? Of course we should do something about it, just like we should about any other tragic threat to our lives, but the resolution must be put into the context as to how much of a threat it truly is, and to what degree should we really be throwing our military around the world to "fix" it?

I would add a ton more, but I need to go back to work. I find Hitchens's thesis on the war to be such a falsehood that I want to almost label it as a dogma. It finds absolutely no basis in the evidence.

18. Interview with Christopher Hitchens

Comment #38498 by bhima on May 8, 2007 at 11:39 am

I wish he would abstain from discussing his political standing. It makes him look like an absolute fool--even though his philosophical arguments for atheism are so strong. His politcal standing has no logical evidential basis at all. Fighting terrorism with a military has never been the answer, nor will it ever be. Destroying everything in its path is the goal of a war machine, it doesn't trouble itself with the nicities of picking out the "bad" from the "good". But, intelligence work (i.e.: CIA), combined with the rest of the civilized world could actually have a REAL defensive effect at quelling some of the terrorism...at least to the point where we can begin to work on the political aspect of terrorism. I really want to know how Hitchens thinks bombing countries stops terrorism. My guess is he hit the bottle a bit too hard when thinking about the war, then wrote about atheism when he sobered up.

19. Republican candidates range from ignorant to dishonest

Comment #37493 by bhima on May 4, 2007 at 4:05 pm

to #26

ewww..i didn't know that. Yeah, the gold standard would totally shift our economy into a massive deflation...except for the people that own lots of gold hahaha!

I personally am not advocating for Ron Paul, I'm no Liberatarian or Conservative, but I do at least believe he has an overall mindset that cares about the constitution before big business. Lets say, i wouldn't be totally destroyed if he got elected. At least we could have debates about the constitution instead of abortion, stem cell research, schiavo, or creationism.

20. Republican candidates range from ignorant to dishonest

Comment #37464 by bhima on May 4, 2007 at 2:03 pm

I find it odd that anyone who claims to be liberatarian would vote for guiliani. The ONLY candidate you should mark at the ballot box (and I believe the only conservative candidate who isn't raving insane or completely owned by big oil) is Ron Paul.

1) Ron Paul does not support this immoral illegal occupation.
2) Ron Paul does not support the patriot act
3) Ron Paul does not support torture or the abolishment of habeus corpus
4) Ron Paul also does not support Bush's signing statements (they throw out checks and balances...one of the most vital functions of our government)
5) and he does not support bypassing FISA.

You know why he doesn't support these actions? because he is the only candidate on that stage that even gives a hoot about the Constitution and our laws. Does Guiliani? No, clearly he does not since he supports Bush verbally or through silent complicity. Seriously, if you consider yourself a liberatarian, please choose a candidate that cares first about the constitution, not first about getting elected or first about some major corporate donor. Cheers.